IT Project TCO Perspectives

Dell and the London School of Economics are collaborating to study practices and perceptions of IT decision-makers on creating enterprise efficiency. One of the findings brings emphasis on the impact that project investments have on on-going operating budgets and the need to minimize that impact, so that "run the business" operating costs do not balloon over time and threaten an enterprise's desire to fund further investment. ...

... "* 40 percent of IT leaders see better IT project management as driving more efficient use of technology.

* Dell Perspective: This was one of the largest current concerns of CIOs and decision makers according to the LSE survey. The need for companies to invest in technology that shifts IT spend away from labor costs that lock companies into a keeping the lights on approach is a significant focus. Further, the research addresses the need for greater implementation of simplifying technologies that drive datacenter efficiency, which can inherently reduce risk while also unlocking resources that can drive innovation. " ...

Via Dell: First Results of Multi-Year Study on Enterprise Efficiency

Project Trends

Anecdotal evidence on information technology investment trends from recent quarterly report by Chordiant, which specializes in customer-focused solutions. ...

... "Although the environment continued to be a challenge in the quarter, we did see initial signs that budgets are beginning to open up and IT projects that can show a return are being approved. " ...

Via Seeking Alpha: Chordiant Software Earnings Call

Working Capital Impact

Target comatose servers to reduce capital requirements and ultimately increase energy efficiency. ...

. .. "Every comatose commodity server shut down or eliminated by consolidation or physical virtualization, recovers between $1,500 and $2,500 in CapEx capacity. " ...

Via Forbes: IT Energy

Green Shoots from IT Projects

What will drive the recovery? Will the technology industry have a role as a leader or a lagger? Let's get cracking on those IT project proposals. ...

... "If there's good news from the Gartner study, it's that CIOs aren't canceling projects outright. CIOs report shifting more work to in-house resources and delaying capital expenditures more than reducing IT project investments ... " ...

Via Motley Fools: Technology Industry Perspectives

Increase, Decrease, or Shift Investments in Projects

Companies with healthy balance sheets are positioned to make strategic investments during a downturn to threaten competitors and emerge from the business cycle in a much stronger market position. Can you raise the capital to invest or shift in-flight investments using a severe portfolio review? Now may be the time to invest. ...

... "Although now is the time to take a close look at your IT projects, an economic downturn can be exactly when IT investment should take place. " ...

Via Accounting Web: IT Strategy and Recessionary Actions

Strategy Execution

Executing on your IT vision requires making investment decisions and allocating your human and financial resources to the disciplined pursuit of your key strategies and enabling projects. ...

... "This requires clear decisions with priorities and clear IT resource allocation based on priorities—adjusted to relevant changes as they arise. " ...

Via CIO Insight: Executing IT Strategy

Proof of Concept

University proof of concept centers are seeing success from mentoring and collaborating on the commercialization of emerging technology projects. ...

... "Results thus far suggest that the proof of concept center is a good model. By early 2008, the two centers combined had given out nearly $10 million in grants, producing twenty-six spinout companies that raised an additional $159 million in private investment. And the process is useful even when it demonstrates that a research idea will not be viable. " ...

Via The Kauffman Foundation: Proof of Concept Centers

SaaS Projects Alternative

If capital investment is being curtailed at your enterprise, SaaS-enabled IT projects may be a model to keep some investments moving forward. SaaS tools can be funded through operating expenses, in a buy-by-the-drink model. This changes the profile of the project financials. ...

... "Software as a service is generally treated as a operating expense. CFOs don't need to go hat-in-hand to their banker and beg for money. " ...

Via Computerworld: Financing IT

Risk Management is a Strength

Whether buying stocks or investing in projects, risks must be understood, accepted, and mitigated. However, no matter how many controls are in place, some risks (see below) are impossible to see. ...

... "Addressing risk, even in companies and stocks we like, is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. It's what every investor should do when considering buying a stock. Satyam is a terrible, disappointing situation. Despite unease about management, it seems to me the full extent of the ugly truth would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to see ahead of time. But let's not give up on the quest for truth, even while remaining aware that sometimes we just can't foresee certain outcomes. " ...

Via Motley Fool: Satyam

Innovation Projects

While we are confronting the strongest headwinds since the Great Depression, leave room in your shrinking project portfolio for innovation and growth investments. It is understandable that operational efficiency and financial stability will move to the forefront and the portfolio balance will shift. There are innovation and project investment lessons to be learned from similar times. ...

... "Neoprene, which DuPont publicly announced in November 1931 and introduced commercially in 1937, became one of the 20th century’s major innovations. By 1939, every automobile and airplane manufactured in the United States had neoprene components. " ...

Via McKinsey Quarterly: Innovating during the Great Depression

Project with Short Term Benefits

Advice on information technology is mixed, as we head into this economic storm. For some enterprises, shifting to short term payback may be necessary to emerge from trough of this economic cycle. However, the some companies will use this environment to implement transformations and shift their position in the marketplace. Whichever path you take, now is the time to revisit your project portfolio and pipeline and readjust priorities. ...

... "Hackett recommends that companies reevaluate any IT projects currently underway and consider eliminating those that are unlikely to generate short-term performance improvements ... " ...

Via Smart Pros: Strategies to Weather the Storm

Project Benefits Realization with Compensation Escrow

There's no doubt that Wall Street risk, returns, and accountability got out of whack. Since most investments, whether IT or other, are founded on the principle of ROI, how about using this escrow account / variable compensation approach until project benefits are realized ? ...

... "One idea is creating escrow accounts at each firm made up of, say, one-third of each year’s allocated compensation, which would be distributed to employees over the next three years - after the account is reduced by losses resulting from poor trades or deals ... " ...

Via New York Times: Risk and Wall Street Reward

Strategic Risks

Want to see risk from the board of directors' perspective? See this list of strategic risks so you can understand the mindset of those folks providing enterprise
oversight and making investment decisions. ...

... "Investment risk relates to the ability to manage business technology spending in a business environment in which capital is scarce and technologies are volatile, expensive and not easily understood. " ...

Via Baseline: Managing Risk from Board Perspective

Resiliency Services

IBM makes significant investment into business continuity, branding its services as providing "Business Resilience" through its globally distributed centers. The service will be offered through the cloud. ...

... "The massive infrastructure expansion is the largest of its kind and will permit IBM clients to access services that support business continuity for the first time from a cloud computing environment. Business continuity and resiliency services help ensure uninterrupted operations across all layers of the business, as well as helping businesses avoid, prepare and recover from a disruption. IBM is the world's leader in providing services that help avoid disruption and enable business continuity. Future Business Resilience service delivery centers will be located in every geographic region of the globe ... " ...

Via IBM: $300 Million Investment to Expand Business Continuity and Resiliency Services

An IT Project Success Story

Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has created a successful project portfolio. ...

... "With support from the Information Technology Project, created through an initiative by the Princess, Toyeeba got a new perspective on life. " ...

Via Bangkok's Independent Newspaper: Princess of Information Technology

Alignment and Transparency Key to Info Tech Success

Marketing success stories, open dialogue about IT opportunities, and investment portfolio management techniques are some of the ways to raise the profile of the information technology organization to business leaders in the organization. ...

... "As a result of all these factors, senior executives at most companies have little desire to deal with IT and its role in their business and relegate this function to the CIO. In addition, many CEOs find the financial and business returns on their IT investments obscure and difficult to quantify ... " ...

Via Wall Street Journal: Hidden Potential of IT

IT Investment in the Crunch

Financial firm is expected to increase its IT investment during the contraction in the credit market, which is a contrarian strategy. ...

... "The impact of the credit crunch on HSBC's accounts is unlikely to have a knock-on effect in the group's IT strategy ... " ...

Via UK Computing: HSBC

Project Investments During Economic Uncertainty or Contraction

Here's some tips regarding investments during uncertain economic times. This quote makes sense in that ... there's quite a bit of effort necessary to adopt and sustain a new performance level after an IT project go-live. This period of stabilization, adoptions, and maturity is a worthwhile investment after the initial capital investment is made. ...

... "Real, long-term value comes from recognizing at the outset that growth, evolution and value-generation require sustained sponsorship, attention, maintenance and marketing. " ...

Via B-Eye: Smart Investment

Grow Ideas into Projects

Create a project incubator. Sprinkle some funding on your seeds and see which ones grow. Prune your plants. And, water your best prospects to grow the strongest trees. Read on for tips on incubating ideas into projects. ...

... "Pruning the project incubator is an especially important aspect of developing ideas. Ideas change over time, and some even turn out to be duds. " ...

Via LifeDev: Grow Your Ideas

Portfolio of One

How would you like to explain your portfolio balance for the next three years with a $1B must-do technology investment? ...

... "FEMA's enterprise IT project is a multiyear program expected to cost at least $1 billion, according to Input Inc. " ...

Via Washington Tech: $1B overhaul

Portfolio Management: Lessons from the Super Bowl, Continued

If you are going to make investments from the high risk, high return segment of your portfolio, you better have the stomach for it. ...

CIO Role Shifts Reporting Relationships

To keep IT relevant and better connected to the overall business strategy, shouldn't the CIO report to the CEO? The data supports a different trend. As CIOs have aligned more investments with the business, has their influence dimished? Or, is reporting relationship irrelevant in the grand scheme of things? No doubt about it ... the sand keeps shifting ...

... "The increasing prominence of the CFO in IT management signals a change in the way companies view technology strategy and deployment. " ...

Via CIO Insight: Meet Your New Boss

Project Transparency and Oversight

High-risk government IT projects are on the rise as federal project managers share the facts on their projects. This is a good thing as there's significant investment at risk. ...

... "OMB attributed the increase to better oversight of the projects and better reporting. " ...

Via FederalTimes: Project Management

IT Portfolio Management

Meta Group insights on managing IT investments as a portfolio to maximize returns while balancing risk. ...

Business Intelligence Business Case

A business intelligence project proposal can be challenging. Can't calculate a positive NPV or ROI? Don't despair. However, you can link the investment to reducing the cycle time of your current management reporting process ... or, you can identify the incremental value of making certain decisions that you cannot make today. Often, though, BI investments are seen as strategic. ...

... "The survey found that measuring the ROI for BI investment is more challenging that for other IT projects. The overall objective of BI is to improve company performance by putting the right information into the right hands at the right time. " ...

Via TMCnet: BI ROI

The Innovation Investment

Innovation is not free. Research projects need funding. And, it costs money for the salaries of innovation evangelists. Fresh from PDMA event, Jeffrey offers insights on the diminishing returns of operational efficiency and the need to innovate in order to grow. ...

... "Without defining an objective and consistently reinforcing the efforts of a group of people who support and enable an innovation process, most firms simply won't generate a lot of new ideas. " ...

Via Innovate on Purpose: Cheap Innovation

Innovation: Influence of Relationships Survey

Survey delves into influence of relationships on innovation process. ...

... "Some data suggests that the quality of the relationships with decision-makers in a given organization may influence whether ideas are advanced (e.g., funded for the first time). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether this is indeed the case. " ...

Via Univ of Penn Wharton School: Survey on Idea Advancement for Knowledge